editor’s note: this is a piece of fiction. It is an imaginary story of what might happen if Donald J Trump were a candidate for a Rotary Club. When Trump became the official Republican candidate this post was made “private”. Now that the election is over and the results in the question raised by this story is still valid, so the post has been made public once again.

The membership committee of the Rotary Club of Usaa, New York has just convened their monthly meeting and is about to consider an application for membership of a rather famous but controversial businessman named Donald J. Trump.

“Rtn. Henry has proposed Donald J. Trump for club membership. I think it is part of his local campaign to have Donald be president in 2016 and I’m afraid he may be doing it to give him more credibility with electors,” membership chair Rtn. Willie says in his opening comment.

“Well, I think Trump’s wanting to be our president should have nothing to do with how we judge him as a candidate to be a Rotarian,” replies Rtn. Marge.

Usaa’s fictional membership committee

That seems like a pretty tough assignment Marge,” Willie responds, “After all his behavior on the campaign trail can’t really be separated from what are some pretty serious flaws in his personality, can they?”

“Like what do you mean by ‘his personality’?” the third member of the committee Rtn. Bill asks.

“Personality, character, whatever term you wish to use, I simply do not think he passes my test for the kind of person I want in our club”, chair Willie intones, then continues, “I want a person who is confident, but polite, who respects others no matter want their color, sex, nationality or whatever. Trump just doesn’t do that. He’s made racist comments, comments that disparage women; he wants to send over 11 million Mexicans back to Mexico….you any idea what that is going to do to the families when the wife and children are born here; that is not the Rotarian way.”

“You’re sounding pretty emotional about him, yourself,” Marge pipes in, “but I know what you mean.” she continues. “I got pretty upset when I heard him say it was okay to kill off mothers and children if it meant getting a terrorist off our wanted list. I just don’t think he passes the kind of moral test I think a Rotarian tries to live or do business by. Do you?”

With that Rtn. Bill chimes in, “Ya, I think I do. I got this …I guess you would call it the ‘b’ list off a FaceBook post the other day…you know words like bully, blowhard, boor, braggart, buffoon, blusterer, brash, belittling, belligerent, brutal, bombastic…if anyone else was described that way we would never admit him would we!” he added.

“So do we have a consensus that Donald J. Trump be rejected as a member?” chair Willie asks.

“Yes, I think so,” they both reply, however, Marge adds “Aren’t you afraid we are going to be accused of being involved of straying into the realm of politics on this one by Henry and maybe others?”

“Ya, I’ve thought about that,” Willie calmly responds. “Personally, I think Henry is counting on us to be afraid to turn him down, but I think it’s our own self-respect and moral integrity, plus that of Rotary’s that is at stake. So do we have the courage and sense of decency to go with rejecting his application?